Wednesday night was supposed to be a celebration of what Bellator has become, how far the company has evolved on the back of its main principle: building its own stars.

Headlining and co-headlining the biggest card in organization history were lightweight champion Michael Chandler and welterweight champion Ben Askren, respectively – the very best Bellator has to offer.

Chandler and Askren both did their part, dominating in victories, though in different ways. All would have been grand, except Bellator trumped its own homegrown products by overshadowing them with the announcement of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Tito Ortiz starring in the main event of the company’s first pay-per-view.

Shame on Bellator.

CEO Bjorn Rebney’s vision when he first laid the ground work for the promotion was to develop new stars through a tournament structure. Bellator completely turned its back on that by handing its biggest show ever – and its first PPV – over to stars built by PRIDE and the UFC, neither of them in their prime.

I get it, I do. Pay-per-views are sold to the public with marquee names. “Rampage” and Ortiz qualify. Those guys do resonate with casual MMA fans. ESPN’s Bottom Line showed the news of the fight Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

I expect the Strikeforces of the world to make that fight. The Elite XCs, the Afflictions.

But not Bellator, never Bellator.

Bellator was supposed to be the champion of the hardcore MMA fans. Most people on this planet don’t know who Chandler and Askren are. They couldn’t tell you the difference between Pat Curran and Alexander Shlemenko. But those guys are legitimate – they would all be contenders in the UFC. And little by little, Bellator was growing their names.

Now, Rebney and Spike TV are telling their fans that Chandler and Askren aren’t good enough to headline Bellator’s first pay-per-view. A pair of former UFC champions, a combined 3-7 in their last 10 fights, are instead.

I’m sure Chandler or Askren or Curran – hey, maybe even all three – will be on that card Nov. 2 in Long Beach, Calif. And maybe some of those casual fans who don’t know their names will learn a few things about some of the best up-and-coming fighters in the world.

If that’s the plan, so be it. But it still sounds like something out of another organization’s playbook.